Haas’ First EMBA Valedictorian

THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE

The program is broken into five terms. Each term has a focused learning area and is capped by an immersive week. The first immersion is focused on leadership communication. Students basically spend the entire week in Napa in an icebreaker situation while developing effective communication skills. After the second term, students travel to nearby Silicon Valley learning about the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Bay Area. Adint says they met with 25 startups in a week.

Next, the students are immersed in training on framing an organization around predicted customer needs. The fourth immersion was the international excursion. Students went with renowned marketing professor and Director of the Asia Business Center at Haas, Teck Ho, to Shanghai. Finally, students spent the last term’s immersive week in Washington D.C. with Haas professor emeritus and Fed Chair, Janet Yellen. The focus was on the interconnected relationship between public policy, business and the economy.

Adint says the Silicon Valley immersion had quite the impact on her and her tribe.

“There was a really big shifting point that week,” Adint says. “The startup mindset switches from ‘those people do that’ to ‘I could do that.’ There were a lot of people who left feeling like they could start a startup in the valley. It made it very real and attainable for everyone.”

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING

For Adint, the program culminated with personal growth, family support and a job.

“This was the best gift I have ever given myself,” Adint says. “It was a sacrifice for myself and my family but one I would absolutely do again. There is so much personal growth and understanding. It taught me how to balance two lives and working efficiently with my school tribe and family tribe.”

Adint was joined on stage at graduation with her nine- and 11-year-old sons. After spending some of the fall doing her own consulting, she recently started her new job as a senior director of sales operations at SugarCRM. Akin to her EMBA application process, Adint applied for only one job after graduation and went to her tribe for confirmation. She got the job and the tribe approved.

“It was a complete blind ad, but I liked what the company did so I applied,” says Adint. “When I was in the interview process, I reached out to many of my classmates to see if they had heard of it. Many knew what it was and said the approved. I used it for confirmation like taking home a significant other to meet the family.”

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